Posted on 11/02/2011 11:40:36 AM PDT by Mountain Bike Vomit Carnage
Time and again the headlines are filled with stories of young children left home alone. Typically they're found fine, and we all fret about what could have happened. In Joplin, Missouri, however, it's what did happen that's heartbreaking.
According to The Joplin Globe, Eric Hicks, 28, was watching his girlfriend's 18-month-old son, Emjay Corn, Saturday morning. He had an appointment at a methadone clinic, but instead of taking the boy with him or finding alternative care for him, he just left him there, alone in his crib. Sometime later the boy was found dead.
The boy's cause of death is still under investigation, and Hicks has been charged with felony child endangerment. Other details are murky as to why police arrived at the house when there was no record of a call being made to them that day and where the mother was. But regardless of the specifics, on the surface, it's such a blatant and sad example of why young children should never be left home alone -- not for an hour, not even for a couple of minutes.
It's hard to find child care, I know. And for some who have to work to pay the rent or keep medical appointments, leaving the children alone may feel like the only option, perhaps especially so for someone coping with drug addiction. But it never can be. Even children who are sleeping or otherwise engaged can get into a dangerous situation in no time at all. People who don't understand that shouldn't be left in charge of them.
I feel for this entire family. I can only imagine their pain and suffering right now as they piece together what happened, contemplate what they could have done to prevent it, and beat themselves up for the rest of their lives over what they didn't do. But that's the thing when it comes to our children's safety -- we don't get do-overs, and that's why we have to put it first, above anything else.
Wow, a lady can never see another man after a divorce or death of a husband because the man will kill them. Are you serious? I have three step-sons who at one point were introduced to me and they are all still alive.
Not in the movie Trainspotting.(It's about, you guessed it, junkies)
WINNING!
If I were responsible for the death of a child they’d have to take my booking photo of me where I lay on the floor curled up in horrified guilt and grief - they’d probably have to draw height marks alongside my head on the floor. This guy looks relatively peeved by comparison.
So, you're saying that a parent of an 18-month-old child is not to be allowed to sleep more than an hour or so at a time during the night --every night?
Really?
funny how the “reporter” failed to focus on the obvious....”never leave your toddler alone, in the care of a heroin addict”
How stupid is that sticker? Everyone knows babies can’t read.
“If only we could build the perfect totalitarian police state that is needed to crush all recreational drugs and drug users, 18-month-old children would never be neglected ever again”
The standard libertarian response.
My comment has nothing to do with a police state or a utopian society. It has to do with your faulty reasoning.
You’re a fool.
He killed the kid. I guarantee
Reminds me of an ‘honor killing’ in San Jose a few years back. The police responded without being called to a residence in San Jose where they discovered the body of a slain teenager and her murderer (her father) and mother at home. There were questions as to how the police knew to respond. It turned out the house was bugged and the police heard the rage fit the father threw because the daughter was dating and socializing etc. and they heard the whole screaming slashing murder as it transpired.
Obviously I don’t know the facts of this baby’s death but one possible scenario is that this house was wired or surveilled in some way and the police heard boyfriend lose it and then the baby suddenly stopped screaming or crying ‘too abruptly’ etc. and responded for that reason.
When you grow up I hope you understand cause and effect.
No... absolutely not. There is a SIGNIFICANT difference of being in the house with a child who is playing, watching t.v., sleeping... whatever vs. leaving the child alone in a house and vacating the premises. For example, even at night... ask any Mom in the world and she can sleep and hear at the same time. They can be down the hall... we’re fast asleep and you are trained to hear a cry or even a cough. Leaving a child alone in a home.... for an extended period of time (i.e. we’re not talking about getting the mail or even pulling weeds) but driving away... opens the door to all sorts of tragedies.
What family? I didn't see a family mentioned. Just a couple of cohabiting drug addicts and one of the victims of their "victimless" crime.
The mother was/is in a mental hospital.
Plenty of details here:
http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1415465705/Police-Toddler-found-dead-had-been-left-at-home-alone
Note the comments by the grandmother and other relatives.
Leaving a small child in the care of a druggie...what could possibly go wrong?
The little one is now in loving arms.
This woman left her precious child with a guy who needed methadone?
Sick.
Since we dumped the standards 40 years ago that governed who we let keep a baby we get more of this.
Ah ... you just punch a couple of holes in the top and they serve just fine
RIP.
"Drugs are bad, drug abuse harms innocents."
Yes, and the sky is blue, and grass is green. So what?
Irresponsible or negligent use of bathtubs harms innocents too. Would you object to someone who opined that using a bathtub is a victim-less crime?
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